Security of consumer goods to prevent their theft has been a problem of merchants since the ancient bazaars and open markets. Complicating the security issue is the need of the merchant to display his goods and allow the potential buyer the greatest access to inspect such goods in order that the buyer will be confident of the quantity and quality of the goods and thus consummate the purchase. Further complicating such security and inspection tradeoff is the possibility not of theft, vandalism and intentional contamination of the goods, but of damage to the goods, i.e., soiling, shop wear and breakage, by good intentioned but careless potential buyers. The aforementioned problems are of a particular concern to merchants of higher priced bottled goods such as wines and champagnes, liquors, and perfumes. It is also a need of the security factor to allow the merchant to store and secure his merchandise in a least offending manner so as to attract customers without exhibiting a distrustful environment.
Related art in secure bottle storage is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,271,702 in which milk bottles are secured in a lockable rack. The disclosed rack holds necked bottles but leaves exposed to potential vandalism their necked ends and such racks have a visible locking means conveying a strict impression of anti-theft rather than an impression of a quality goods display and inspection rack.
Related art in a module for housing containers and for forming a storing arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,449 in which necked bottles are stored in position by restricting the movement of the bottles in a rack by imposing a rotatable rack member against the neck portion of the bottle. In this invention the racks must have sufficient clearances to allow the bottle to be withdrawn longitudinally from the rack in the direction of the axis of the bottle and also does not protect the exposed bottles from vandalism or acts of intentional contamination. Other systems using lockable glass doors to secure bottles on shelves have the disadvantage of preventing direct and easy examination of the bottle and its contents and are more costly to construct and maintain.
The present invention solves the problem of storage and security while providing the potential customer with an ability to closely inspect the labels and commercial contents of the bottle in an environment lacking visibly apparent security controls. Therefore, it is the purpose of this invention to provide an enhanced display of the stored bottled goods to the customer while protecting the merchant's goods from pilfering, vandalism, contamination, inadvertent breakage and wear and tear.